Boosting Performance Through Creative Surgery

Beetle

Jean Fourie has spent the three years designing and building the V8 Stealth Beetle at his company 3L Engineering in Cape Town, South Africa. Jean started with a 1965 Beetle body that sits over a custom aluminum chassis cut and bent out of five and six mm sheets by Vulcan Steel resulting in a 950 … Read more

Mike Speelmon enjoys time spent in his garage working on his 1970 Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle is powered by a 2.0 L 8v ABA inline-four connected to the factory transmission. Mike’s original plan was to turbocharge the engine but he decided to keep it naturally aspirated. He expects the engine to make 115-120 horsepower and … Read more

Flat Specialities in Bréhal, France specializes in restoring Volkswagen and Porsche vehicles. The company is not afraid of combining the two. They are in the middle of the project that involves installing a Beetle body over Porsche Boxster underpinnings. The Boxster is a first generation model with a 2.5 L flat-six that makes 201 horsepower. … Read more

The Volkswagen Beetle’s design, weight, and abundant numbers makes it a popular choice for racing. Sean Mckillop agreed when he purchased a 1970 Bug five years ago and transformed it into the autocross monster called Bugzilla. Sean’s goal from the beginning was a street-legal race car with a mid-engine layout. This meant the factory chassis … Read more

This 1956 Volkswagen Beetle called “Berlin Buick” was built by Gary Brown of Browns Metal Mods in New York. The Beetle uses a reinforced pan and rides on a custom independent suspension with RideTech air shocks. A custom tube chassis supports an all-aluminum Buick 215 V8 that produces 250-275 horsepower and loud sounds through straight … Read more

This 1960 VW Beetle has been owned by the same man since the mid-80’s and spent a lot of work over the past 14 years tuning it into the beast you see. It all started when the owner tired of keeping the air-cooled motor going and looked for a more powerful engine that wouldn’t break … Read more